The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens' London Paperback – July 14, 2015

I'm an actress and screenwriter and this is PERFECT for getting into the life and times of the Dickensian era. It's so thorough you can literally smell the layers of filth of the times (do keep smelling salts handy, and a good cuppa ;-), but got to marvel at the ingenuity of people finding a way to make a bob. Truly indispensable book if you're working with this time period, or just curious!

This is horribly depressing in so many ways. The plight of the lower class is so heartrending, and it definitely gave me a new appreciation of my cushy, modern life. That said, it's chalked full of information and is a must-read for anyone interested in that time period. It's a fascinating delve into the world of Victorian London with a focus on the middle to lower class that paints a much different picture of that era and city than modern audiences are familiar with.I also enjoyed that it was quite specific with dates and years. It seems like a lot of books I've read about the era don't differentiate between early, mid, and late Victorian era, and it's too big a time period and too revolutionary a time period to have it all lumped in. Plus, it gives a lot of context by explaining how it differs from the Georgian era before it, which is really helpful.The reason I'm not giving this five stars is that it definitely dragged in some places (did it really need an entire chapter dedicated to prostitution?) and the organization was a little wonky at times. Otherwise, it's a stellar book and is stuffed full of tidbits. My copy is filled with highlights and notes, and it's one of the best books I've read on the subject so far.

Judith Flanders knows her stuff. A detailed, nuanced, exceedingly well informed description of almost every aspect of Victorian London. Flanders' knowledge of her subject is so deep that she can deduce which specific street or alley Dickens had in mind when he set a particular scene in one of his novels. Anyone interested in the history of London or the work of Charles Dickens' should enjoy this fine book.

Judith Flanders is amazing at bringing a city to life so you feel as if you have been there. I was entranced from the first of the book right through the end. This is lively writing, not static words on the page. I hope you buy it and find it as entrancing as I did!

This book is packed full of information about all aspects of Victorian London life. It reads easily and the tone is not boring. The only drawbacks are if you don't know anything about London or have never read Dickens, then you might have a hard time knowing where all of the mentioned locations are.Secondly, there's not enough pictures, diagrams, and maps for this book - I think that including a good deal of those throughout would have been helpful to the reader.Thirdly, in some chapters the author draws things out longer than they need be, leading myself to skip over entire sections. Getting to the point without running around for pages and pages would be better.

This book is as filling and satisfying a meal as bangers and mash. You will learn about life in the city of London circa 1812-1870, which is the lifespan of Charles Dickens. Dickens will be your tour guide for much of the journey, as Judith Flanders uses his books in a quite original way to give the reader insights on life in 19th Century London. You'll also get a greater understanding of his novels, as many of Dickens' references to his own time go right over the head of most modern-day readers. But they are explained herein.I like to read while I eat my lunch, and there were places in the book that caused me to put my sandwich down. This was particularly true of those sections that dealt with the poor, medicine, and sewage. It does get rather earthy. But overall, this is an enjoyable repast.

As a reader of Dicken's and 19th century English literature for a long time this fill in so many gaps in my understanding of how everyday London worked and people lived in it. And the reader was excellent.

This is a wonderful, detailed book about historical aspects of London during Dickens' life. I had read a previous book by the same author (Victorian House) which was equally excellent. I am still in the process of reading it but I highly recommend this author for detailed, historical information during the Victorian period.